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Much of the surface suffers with the remnants of of run-down industrial sites or non-biodegradable trash. The thin atmosphere has been polluted to the extent of contamination, requiring all citizens to wear filter masks when venturing out of doors. The small seas, once a bountiful reservoir of food, have been tainted with pollution and now give rise to a variety of mutated inedible life forms. Weather control is practiced to reduce the effects of acid rain.

Iiradu is the capital of the Iiradu Subsector, but beneath its glossy high-tech exterior, it is now crumbling and decaying after many centuries of growth and prosperity.

Iiradu maintains an orbital class-A starport with shuttle service to the surface. Surrounding the starport is a massive orbital city of 20 billion people living in excessively overcrowded conditions. The cost of living is high and quality of life is low, with crime rampant in some areas. Most of the people in the orbital city support the bureaucratic systems that control the population on the planet. The ducal palace and the Imperial subsector administrative headquarters are located in the Iiradu orbital.

Between the port and the surface are orbiting pleasure domes and private orbital facilities providing a stopover point of the rich and ruling elite. Imported produce from Anshu (Dagudashaag 3110) feeds many of the elite.

The surface of Iiradu is heavily over-populated with a further 35 billion people according to the last census, though this is woefully out of date.

The populace of the planet struggle to keep the planet running, working is sweatshops or in the heavy mining industries on the surface of the world. Centuries of manufacturing operations on a huge scale and the impersonal bureaucratic government have gradually led to the current deplorable situation.

Outsiders suggesting robotics to help with the labor and control the planet's tainted atmosphere have been rebuffed. There is a strong anti-robot sentiment throughout the population over fears of leaving the population without jobs. There have been riots where attempts made to introduce significant amounts of automation; instead the manufacturing centers have ultra-complex machinery supervised and tended by large numbers of people.

Iiradu's whole populace depends on vast food imports for survival. In return it exports much of its manufactured and raw materials, especially minerals, software, vehicles, and robotics. There is now little profit in many of its trades leading to little re-investment in research or development. Taxation is indirect and leveled on all imports and exports.

The planetary government, an impersonal bureaucracy, consists of several large committees. Members of each committee are career bureaucrats who have risen to the top through administrative skill, leadership potential, or (more commonly) bribery and corruption. The ordinary population is largely apathetic and disinterested, struggling to survive in their overcrowded and complex technological society. Communal living in the norm.